Has anyone had their toddler in speech therapy for not talking?

Christy - posted on 06/21/2010

Yes, my son was in speech therapy from age 2 until 3. We used ECI (early childhood intervention here in Texas) and it was free. The therapist came out once a week and it helped out A LOT. Also, my son was tongue tied, also but it was fixed when he was 2 days old. That can definitely cause speech issues if it isn't fixed. All states have some sort of ECI program, you should look into it.

Laura - posted on 06/21/2010

My youngest is only 22 months old and still only babbles in her own language,she is very advanced in all other areas.tbh Im not worried.Her brother now 3, did not begin talking untill he was around 2 and a half.Now he is 3 and a half and could talk for England! He is also reading basic words.All kids are different.My eldest son ,now 14 was speaking fluently by 20 months,could clearly recite his alphabet and knew and could clearly tell you all the colours.He was fluently reading at 4.Heres the thing,he was diagnosed with Autistic spectrum disorder at age 11 (Aspergers),Dyspraxia,and ADHD.Despite how advanced he was,we knew there were problems because he wouldnt talk to you,he would talk at you,and socially he struggled hugely.So while I fully advocate getting your child assessed if you feel something is wrong, I would advise against getting caught up in a situation where you feel pressured to ensure your child is reaching targets that they simply may not be ready for. There is a good reason why most doctors want to wait untill a child is 2, or in some cases older,because unless there are obvious signs of delay in a child,Its difficult to diagnose problems in very young children because as I said before they all develop at different rates.A friend of mine did not speak untill she was 5 years old,she has just completed her 3rd university degree with honors.She was never diagnosed with any problems physical,or otherwise.Good luck,hope this helps.

Charlene - posted on 06/20/2010

Hi, I am a Mommy of a 22 mo girl and a SLP (Speech Therapist) with kids from 1 years and older, I work in an early intervention preschool. So, the pediatrician diagnosed that his expressive language delay was due to his frenulum (the thing under his tongue) being too short? And the Speech Therapist, was upset about this diagnosis? Dealing with a short frenulum is a tricky subject and generally is not the cause of expressive language delay. But, it may contribute in some way. Usually a short frenulum causes problems with articulation when kids are older. And as the previous therapist mentioned that he could have trouble with oral motor abilities. Having trouble with rounding lips, puckering, sticking out your tongue, moving it from side to side contributes to difficulties talking.

What it seems like you are saying from his previous speech evaluation is that his receptive language (what he understands is good), but he has delays in his expressive language. Not sure what test they used, but saying there is a 25% delay sounds like she is concerned with a delay. BTW using sign counts as a verbal response. :)

Sometimes watching therapy can look like what they are doing can be done at home, but there is more to it than that. Is the Therapist giving you homework to do at home? And if you are opposed to her letting him have suckers, you can let her know. There are alternatives to candy for oral motor activities, such as flavored tongue depressors or flavor spray.

Working with a strong willed child for therapy can be difficult, but if he trusts the therapist, he may eventually warm up and cooperate. If you make it fun for the child, you would be surprised what they would do! Sounds like to me there is a case for both, a strong willed toddler with a slight developmental delay. Does he get frustrated if he can't communicate his wants and needs? I would trust the specialists, at 22 months, kids overall should be using around 10 words, and should be beginning to attempt to combine two words at a time (like "more ball"). I know other people will say, oh just wait, it will come. But it sounds like to me that with the several things you mentioned happening (and from personal experience), some kids need a little intervention in order to get that extra "push" to get started. It's one of those situations, where if you wait, you never know what may happen later. It is better to work it out as soon as possible so you don't have to deal with more therapy later.

Jaime - posted on 06/20/2010

My 22 month old doesn't really talk either. He says some stuff, and repeats at random. Sometimes he will say something for a week or so, and then just quit. I think if you give him time, especially now that you got his tongue fixed, he will talk and be ready in no time. Just be patient.
And I understand your want to rush, I really do. I am do the first week of September. But you will still have time to be with him, you learn to adjust, I swear. :) This is baby number 4 for me.

Erika - posted on 06/20/2010

Interesting story. My pediatrician told me at my son's 18 mo check-up (he's an only-child as well), that if he didn't speak 20 words by 20 months, to call him and he'd start "early intervention". After reading 3 books and dozens of articles about toddler speech, I think my Doctor is CRAZY. I never called him, although my son does NOT speak 20 words and he is 23 motnhs old now. Everything I read said VERY CLEARLY that by age 2, a good percentage of 2 yr olds speak around 6 words only, on a regular basis. I believe this to be true, as my nephew only speaks about 15 words and he is 30 mos old. So its true what they say I think.....they are all different and all have different skills at different times. If it were ME...I would totally not spend that money on any more interventions, especially with not what you expected for progress. It will happen....and remember boys are almost always behind girls with every developmental skill. Its not like he will just never talk!!! It WILL happen....I deal with my in-laws all the time asking about it and I hate that. They can't possible remember when their children talked 20-40 years later!!! Everyone is just so eager for them to talk and be social, but you can't rush them. I am in the process of switching pediatricians because I don't agree with my current one's philosophies. I have 2 siblings, and we all stayed home with our mother, never went to daycare or speech classes or "interventions" and we all talk just fine, LOL.

Carrie - posted on 06/20/2010

in my experience with friends and family who have little ones under two, babies who sign dont say as much because they can still tell you what they need to by signing. I have a 22 month old daughter and i can t get her to stop "talking". She does have a large vocabulary, but most of what she tells me, i cannot understand :) When she does stop asking for things by name, i make her say the word before she gets whatever she is asking for (if she knows the word)
I used to work in a clinic that did speech, occupational and physical therapy for pediatric patients and it DOES help, if you find the right therapist!
Good Luck!

Dorothy - posted on 06/20/2010

We are in the process of having our daughter evaulated. She has said a few words here and there but never consistently

Ashley - posted on 06/20/2010

ok so your son acts like mine lol (the strong willed part) I will tell you my story..I haven't read all the post so sorry if something was repeated. I had my son late august of 2008 (hes 22 months this month) and my husband was deployed to iraq when he was 4 months old. It was just me, I went back to the states to stay with family (being 19 years old and a new born baby) My son was a happy baby, babbled all the time. Normal happy baby. A little after he turned 1 years old everything drastically changed. Cried alot (and trust me this child NEVER cried unless he was hungry) quit talking....I moved back to Germany for my husbands return home in January. I didn't even notice anything in my son and my pediatrician knocked the crying as "early start of terrible twos"..it has progressively gotten worse. At 18 months I noticed my son wasn't verbal at all (quit babbling) he didn't point at things. If he wanted something he just threw himself down and cried. So they have this program called EDIS for army and I called them. They came out and tested him and they said he was above average in everything else except communication...he was very much below average...they told me he has to be with EDIS 6 months before they consider speech therapist...has been 6 months and well no speech therapist (got to love the military..its alot differant then the civilian world, you have to be referred to specialist or pay it out of pocket and well yeah thats expensive)....anywhos my son does babble alot more now and bless his heart, tries to say the words but still having issues...pretty soon we will be taking matters in to our own hands. We just had our second child (3 weeks old now) and well a child that can't communicate and that throws massive tantrums with a new born is a stressful situation!!! I guess the moral of this story is , if you feel something is wrong and its not helping (of course after a legitamate length of time) I would go further. My son is having his hearing checked to make sure its ok, and shortly will be going to a behavioral specialist if audiology doesn't find anything wrong. Mind you boys tend to talk later but don't wait that long!!! I have a friend that waited tuntil her son was 4 years old because every dr told her boys take longer to talk and well her son is about 8 years old now and still having issues and is in a special speech therapy school because she was told it was "normal"
I hope you find some answers and despite how stressful it is just keep working with him. If he does have just a slight delay then it may take him awhile to pick it up!!! Keep your hopes up high and when he does say something ....reward him!!!...

Emily - posted on 06/20/2010

Hello! you say that he uses sign a lot? Well if that's working for him he has no reason to try anything new like talking. My son has been pretty slow to start talking but now he is getting frustrated that we don't understand him he is coming on leaps and bounds. You may find that when baby 2 arrives you little boy will do anything for attention - including talking to you to get your praise! All is not lost! x

Angela - posted on 06/19/2010

Lea - Until this week we saw her for an hour, one time a week. She would blow bubbles with him, try to brush his teeth, and give him suckers, fruit snacks and a popsicle stick to dip into jelly to him to lick it. She would try to get him to repeat her sounds or actions and he wouldn't. He wants to do what we do (cook, clean, work in the yard) but will not repeat sounds or stick his tongue out on command. We started signing to him at 6 months old and he started signing back a couple months after and still does well. We have always also read to him a lot and avidly use positive reinforcement which works for everything but speech. You know how they say if your child talks or babbles to repeat it or talk back to encourage him? Our son stops and goes on to something else. For our son, he's said words...just not on a regular basis and not frequently. So my thing is how do you know if it's a delay or him moving at his own pace?

Autumn - We do have a program that may pay but they won't tell us if our son's "delay" is covered and are just pushing weekly therapy. He had a 25% delay in communication but he only scored lower in things that required him to verbally respond. The rest he was 2-12 months ahead. We started teaching our son sign language at 6 months and he started signing back around 8 months, I think. It's really saved us some tantrums and the therapist actually encourages it, as does our pedi. We continue to add signs as we can.

Kristina - Thanks so much for your post. Our pedi wasn't concerned either and we'll see what she says when we go back for his 2 year check up in a couple months. She said neither of her girls had words at 18 months (when we talked about therapy, he's 22 months now) but she new how hard it can be as a parent and would send us anyway, although most wouldn't talk to us until 2 years. We gave it 2 more months and then asked her for the referral. Good luck to you too...I hope things continue to progress for you as well!!

Thanks, ladies!!!

Kristina - posted on 06/19/2010

I have nothing to report right now. My son was evaluated, as recommended by my pediatrician. He did meet up with the 25% or greater language delay and starts therapy in 2 weeks. He is developing very well since the evaluation 2 months ago and I am not at all concerned. He, as every child, will grow and learn at his own pace. I hope to report back with some good news. Good luck to you all :)

Autumn - posted on 06/19/2010

You should see if your community has a program call Parents As Teachers (PAT), you can get free evaluations & speech therapy. My daughter is 22 months old & only says mommy, daddy & makes some animal sounds when she sees them or I ask. Her Doctor isn't too worried about her not speaking yet. I have been teaching her sign language since the 1st week of Feb. & she has learned 35 signs, which has really helped us communicate with eachother & others!! She can also point to 20 body parts. I have friends whos kids didn't talk till 2 or 3 years of age. We haven't started speech therapy yet, but have had an evaluation. I myself am not too concerned yet. She understands everything we say, & you can ask her to do 2 to 3 things at a time & she will remember. Hope you find something that works for you & your family.

Lea - posted on 06/18/2010

My son, 21 months, has had 3 weeks of speech therapy. He was diagnosed with a 50% developmental delay in expressive speech (he can comprehend it at age level).

What kind of activities did the therapist have you/your child do?

I have been trying to duplicate some of her techniques myself, plus my husband and I attended a "Help your child communicate" class offered by our health care provider. The main things - more reading books to the child, give choices of two objects to eat or play with, wear, etc. and hold near mouth as you say their name, waiting for them to indicate in some way which one they want, encouragement/clapping, etc. when they do attempt even partial words, not easily getting them objects when requested without an attempt on their part to vocalize what they want (even if it's not perfect speech). Also encourage them to imitate animal noises and other environmental sounds, as these can be precursors to words.

How often did you go? 1x week, 45 minute session

It's only been a few weeks, but I have seen him vocalizing words he had already been saying more frequently and he's added one new (partial) word, "mo" (for more), that he had already been signing. He's now up to 10 words (mama, dada, up, buh-buh (bye-bye), yeah, ba (ball), buh (book), wa (water), nana (banana), mo (more). At this age, even imperfectly pronounced words count as speech.

Fortunately this is a government provided program where I live, so I don't have to worry about the cost.

I hope that speech therapy makes a difference for your toddler!

Angela - posted on 06/18/2010

Wendy - The speech therapist did say that the cups we have for him are good since the straw doesn't require biting but he's drinking out of cup now and we're trying to switch between the 2 so not sure how much that changes things. Thanks for the comment on how long your son has been in therapy. I don't expect results overnight, but do find it odd that he started progressing before the therapy even started. It doesn't seem that it would be a physical impairment more than he's just not ready, and that's our main concern.

Anne - Thanks for your reply. Our son doesn't show any signs of autism or ADHD and like I mentioned in my post, the only thing he doesn't do is talk. That's my issue, I don't want to put him through anything that's not necessary but when the problem is he can't tell you WHY he's not talking, it gets a little difficult.

Laura M - Thanks so much for the book idea. I'll have to check it out. My son is way more active than vocal. And he only babbles when it's just myself and my husband or a few others he's comfortable with, the therapist has never heard him babble at all. But I do wonder if his developmental priorities were just different since they found him a year ahead of schedule physically. Even more reason we're having a hard time deciding on pursuing this or letting him run his course.

Laura W - We've had his hearing checked and the pedi did check for that and doesn't think that's an issue. My friend's grandson is 3 weeks younger than our son and just had his 2nd surgery to have his replaced and they found that really helped him too. Part of me wishes it was something physical so it was clear and fixable. Now it just seems like we have to wait.

Sara - Thanks so much for the post. That's where we were at too, especially since they found our son was 12 months ahead of schedule physically, but don't want to be ignorant to anything that may be preventing him from progressing, you know?

Sara - posted on 06/18/2010

i wouldnt worry to much my 22 month old still isnt talking apart from mummy and daddy its a lot of pointing and screaming but he understands if i ask him to do something my health visitor isnt worried as all children develop at different stages he is developing quicker in his physical development like he can catch a ball which he shudnt do till hes 3 where his cousin is nearly 2 and can count 1 - 10 in english and french so i wouldnt worry about it

Laura - posted on 06/18/2010

I also had a friend who had that problem with her daughter too. It really did improve her speech and some behavioral issues too.

Laura - posted on 06/18/2010

My son had the same speech delays. I took him to developmental specialists and we found out that he had fluid build up behind his eardrums (no infections...there's a name for it but I can't remember). So we took him to an ENT who recommended tubes be put in. Since his surgery, his speech has improved significantly!!

Laura - posted on 06/18/2010

Here is the link for the book. I really recommend it for you. Will help you to focus on your son and not worry about him which you dont need at this time. =)

http://www.amazon.ca/Takes-Two-Talk-Chil...

Laura - posted on 06/18/2010

Angela, my son is a 22 months old and has a limited amount of verbal words. I also have a 12 year old girl who has CP and Dev. Delay. With my daughter having special needs we went to the speech therapy. Basically at first we just went to a group and worked out of a book called "It takes two to talk". This was a good book and recommend it. It just gives you strategies on how to get your child to talk.

At this point in time, I would not worry too much but it is good to be proactive, than be in denial. Also, I really think boys just dont talk as much as girls. My toddler prefers to be more physical than talk. My friends girls are all way advanced in talking but not so much in the physical.

So relax, take a few deep breaths, enjoy your time with your son cause chaos is going to be coming real soon. =) Try to find the book and then you can set some time out with just you and your son working on "communication" instead of "speech". This might be nice once the baby arrives, then you and your husband can have some quality time together but still working on his communication.

Good Luck.
Laura

Anne - posted on 06/18/2010

omg what is wrong with you people toddlers dont hold full conversations like older kids and adults speech delay is when they dont use words rather than sentences and you can start to worry when they havent done any babbling small words etc if they reach the age of 18months and you could get them ascessed with a speech thearapist my spelling is terriable anyway your son might have autism add adhd or some other devoplmental delay but unless you get it checked out by the right people you wont get far with the medical field for the most part the doctars arent informed enough to be able to tell you whether theres a learning delay or not you will get better results from people working in the field rather than general doctars and nurses who are great people in their chosen field just not at things to do with the learning side of the brain i know this from almost thirteen years of experience with my three sons the two oldest have mild forms of autism my oldest has some learning difficulties but is working nicely he can now read and has a slight grasp on numbers etc my second son has no learning problems but has behaviour issues that are for the most part through hard work being dealt with in a very apporiate manner my oldest is twelve and a half my second eldest is 7 years old and my youngest is year and ahalf i know from him hes reached a lot of his milestones before his older brother did every child whether they have a learning problem or not will do xyz at there own pace and people ought to stop using the term normal ive typically devopled nieces nephews and yes sometimes they are great and somtimes not so good thats just like adults really noone is perfect we wouldnt be on this earth if perfect was what we are .The world moves at such a fast pace nowadays people expect to much from new borns toddlers children teenagers to much pressure is put upon humans to be what they are not its nice to be succesful to a degree but it aint going to lead to to lead to any differnt ending we are all born we all die thats life

Wendy - posted on 06/17/2010

I don't have experience with your exact situation. But, my older son started speech therapy at 3 he is almost 5 now. The thing under his tongue is too long, so he pushes his tongue too far forward. This results in a "t" sound being substituted for most consenants. We are still in therapy and it took several months for us to start seeing real improvement. I do know that many doctors reccomend against "clipping" the thing under the tongue now, but don't know why. If it were me, I would probably try therapy for a while and see if it improves. It might be worth getting a second opinion from another speech therapist.

You can ask that she use no sugar suckers (they use some of these things with my son). Also, look into "straw therapy" I'm not sure if it has a proper name. But drinking out of different shape straws strengthens different mouth and tongue muscles.

Angela - posted on 06/16/2010

Thanks for your post, Brittney! Do you mind letting me know how things go for you guys when you start? Good luck!!!

Brittney - posted on 06/15/2010

I haven't started my 22 month old in speech therapy yet, but we are considering it. He has some words and has started using more recently, but he still is delayed. My aunt is a speech therapist and thinks my son has an oral motor delay problem also. It's called apraxia I think. I know she says that it is better to start speech therapy younger because the older they are the harder it is to teach them. Having a "tied" tongue can delay speech because they are not able to form the words with their tongue. I don't know if this helps at all, but it may help to know you are not alone.